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Tag: Peri

Two for Six

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Review of The Two Doctors (#140)

DVD Release Date: 29 Jul 20
Original Air Date: 16 Feb – 02 Mar 1985
Doctors/Companions: Six, Two, Perpugilliam Brown, Jamie McCrimmon
Stars: Colin Baker, Patrick Troughton, Nicola Bryant, Frazer Hines
Preceding Story: The Mark of the Rani (Six, Peri)
Succeeding Story: Timelash (Six, Peri)

Robert Holmes is among the most revered writers in Classic Who fandom (and rightfully so, imo), so when I fired up my DVD of The Two Doctors to refresh my memory for this review, I was utterly surprised to see his name in the credits. It’s not that I had remembered this serial as particularly bad, whereas most Holmes titles are distinctly among the good, but rather that I didn’t have a very strong sense of the story at all.

I always make a few notes for myself before a re-watch about what details of the particular adventure I actually recall, and they were pretty thin on the ground this time. Aside from the presence of the eponymous reincarnations—Two serving as support for Six—I remembered the Androgums (though not by name; all I could pull out was the final syllable), the location shooting in Spain, a lepidopterist, and Jaime trapped in some sort of matrix-y space.

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A Victim of Regeneration

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Review of The Twin Dilemma (#137)

DVD Release Date: 05 Jan 10
Original Air Date: 22 – 30 Mar 1984
Doctors/Companions: Six, Perpugilliam Brown
Stars: Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant
Preceding Story: The Caves of Androzani (Five, Peri)
Succeeding Story: Attack of the Cybermen (Six, Peri)

We’ve rolled back around to a Low for this month’s entry in this year’s series of Highs and Lows, and it is definitely one you’ll see on a lot of fans’ s***-lists. Although the list I keep coming back to only ranks it at 222 of 254 (roughly at the bottom 1/8), list author Charlie Jane Anders mentions that it’s not really all that bad. I find I have to agree with her.

Note that I’m not saying it’s a good story, but it’s not as bad as I remembered. As I watched it again, I started to develop some hypotheses about why it has such a poor reputation in the fandom, and I think I’ve got some solid working ones.

Before I get into the details of that analysis, though, I want to talk about what I remembered about the story before I started my re-watch. It wasn’t a whole heck of a lot, to be honest. First and foremost, I remembered the closing line, because it so clearly breaks the fourth wall. Although nominally talking to Peri, the Doctor turns almost straight to camera and says, “I am the Doctor. Whether you like it or not.”

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Tranquil Rewatch

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Review of Revelation of the Daleks (#142)
DVD Release Date: 06 Jun 06
Original Air Date: 23 – 30 Mar 1985
Doctors/Companions: Six, Perpugilliam “Peri” Brown
Stars: Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant
Preceding Story: Timelash (Six, Peri)
Succeeding Story: The Mysterious Planet (Six, Peri)

Circumstances conspired against me again, and I was in no mood to appreciate even a Hidden Gem like Revelation of the Daleks when I sat down to rewatch it. Although I’ve come to appreciate Ol’ Sixie, he’s still among my least favorite Doctors to watch; I’ve gotten pretty tired of Daleks over the years; and to top it all off, I was fighting off a fever and sore throat.

Nevertheless, as the fog of obligation retreats, and I can reflect on it from the other side of that viewing, I find there are plenty of things to recommend Revelation. On a purely superficial level, for example, we have the Doctor’s coat-of-many-colors covered for most of the first 45-minute episode by a lovely blue cloak.

I’d also forgotten that this was Peri’s introduction to the Daleks. When she sees one roll past, then, she doesn’t immediately warn the Doctor of the danger; she merely calls out with startlement about “some sort of machinery.” To his credit, the Doctor doesn’t chastise her; he merely goes to investigate.

That point, in fact, is probably one of the best parts of the entire adventure, and one that didn’t even register as I was watching (a sure sign that I was not giving it my full attention—or at least not what would’ve been my full attention pre-pandemic). One of the most difficult things about the early parts of Colin Baker’s run is the way the writers had the Doctor and Peri at each other’s throats all the time. One of the reasons I love Mark of the Rani so much (aside from the Rani herself) is that the TARDIS team acts like they actually have affection for each other.

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A Needle in a Schlock Stack

Review of Timelash (#141)
DVD Release Date: 09 Jul 07
Original Air Date: 09 – 16 Mar 1985
Doctors/Companions: Six, Perpugilliam “Peri” Brown
Stars: Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant
Preceding Story: The Two Doctors (Six, Two, Peri, Jamie)
Succeeding Story: Revelation of the Daleks (Six, Peri)

I may need to cross-file this under “Confessions,” but I should be up front on this: I don’t think I’ve ever truly given this story a fair shake. Even now, viewing it for the nominal purpose of assessing whether or not it deserves its bad reputation, I couldn’t quite divorce myself from my previous poor impressions.

To be fair, though, I’m not the only one who finds Timelash wanting. Aside from the (ableist) fan-epithet anagram I’ve heard used (Lamesh**), it came in dead last—#254 of 254—in the io9’s Best-to-Worst rankings I’ve been using as a loose gauge of quality for my Bad Reputation series.

Is it really that bad? Possibly not—but (as they say) lord, it ain’t good!

I knew I was in trouble when I got about 20 minutes into the story and all I could do was check the running time, waiting for the cliffhanger so I could fast forward through a few more minutes of credits and recap. Worse, by about 23 minutes, I realized to my horror that this was, in fact, from the era of two-parters. I would get no episode break until halfway into the entire hour-and-a-half-long adventure.

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Dumpster of Fire

Review of Planet of Fire (#134)
DVD Release Date: 07 Sep 10
Original Air Date: 23 Feb – 02 Mar 1984
Doctors/Companions: Five, Vislor Turlough, Perpugilliam Brown
Stars: Peter Davison, Mark Strickson, Nicola Bryant
Preceding Story: Resurrection of the Daleks (Five, Tegan, Turlough)
Succeeding Story: The Caves of Androzani (Five, Peri)

For some reason, Planet of Fire has always sort of flown under my radar. In the back of my head, it had become “the story where both Mark Strickson and Nicola Bryant were scantily clad for their farewell/introduction, and there were volcanoes or something—oh yeah, and the Master.”

According to received fan wisdom (at least in the form of io9’s Best-to-Worst ranking, which puts PoF at #227 of 254), I can hardly be blamed. Even if I’d forgotten some of the key elements (the Master’s predicament, the final appearance of Kamelion, the revelation of Turlough’s secret past, and where all those intersect on a geologically active planet), there wasn’t much in any of it to endear it to viewers. (The exception, of course, is the aforementioned minimal costuming; I’ve heard at least one person say they learned something about themselves seeing Turlough in those shorts.)

Poor Kamelion stands out as one of the biggest problems. I’m sure the idea of a shape-changing robot sounded exciting to the writers (or JNT? I don’t know who’s responsible for Kamelion) when it was first proposed, but creating a plot that works well for such a character—and then realizing it satisfactorily on screen—appears to have been too difficult a task. (I did, however, once win a round of the Verity! Podcast “In Defense Of” game at Gallifrey One by successfully arguing for 60 seconds that “Kamelion is better than K-9,” using its role in helping to defeat the Master in PoF as one of my talking points.)

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Stomachturn

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Review of Mindwarp (#143b)
DVD Release Date: 10 Oct 08
Original Air Date: 04 – 25 Oct 1986
Doctor/Companion: Six, Perpugilliam “Peri” Brown
Stars: Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant
Preceding Story: The Mysterious Planet (Six, Peri)
Succeeding Story: Terror of the Vervoids (Six, Mel)

I will admit, dear readers, that I cringed at the thought of needing to rewatch Mindwarp for this review. Parts Five through Eight of The Trial of a Time Lord (TToaTL) have always ranked high in my personal list of regrettable Doctor Who stories, and I’m afraid nothing changed this time around.

There are a few things that stand out in my memory about Mindwarp, no matter how long it’s been since my last viewing: the way Peri gets so thoroughly screwed over; Brian Blessed’s sheer, scenery-chewing volume; and the return of Sil, perhaps my most hated antagonist ever. None of these key traits serve to recommend the adventure, nor are they improved on repeated viewing.

While I’ve never particularly cared for Peri, no one deserves the shitty treatment—especially in a farewell appearance—that she gets here*. Even before the Doctor goes off the deep end (and he does, though neither we nor the Doctor himself, as evidenced by his reactions back in the courtroom on Gallifrey, really know why), he is truly horrible to his Companion. The prime example ties into another of my dislikes about Mindwarp: Sil.

Given the way Sil made my skin crawl (and not in a “love to hate” way) in his first appearance, I—like poor Peri—have no desire to be anywhere near him, even narratively. When she discovers Sil is on Thoros Beta with them, and that it is in fact his home planet (a detail the Doctor neglected to mention), she tells the Doctor outright that she wants to leave. Sil tortured her the last time they met, and she has been understandably traumatized by the experience.

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A Mysterious Plan

Review of The Mysterious Planet (#143a)
DVD Release Date: 10 Oct 08
Original Air Date: 06 – 27 Sep 1986
Doctor/Companion: Six, Perpugilliam “Peri” Brown
Stars: Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant
Preceding Story: Revelation of the Daleks (Six, Peri)
Succeeding Story: Mindwarp (Six, Peri)

Today I start a new review series, with an arc I’ve long avoided here. The Trial of a Time Lord (ToaTL) is, depending on who you ask, either a season-long, fourteen-part story or four, two- or four-part stories connected into a season arc. It comprises approximately half of the Sixth Doctors televised tenure in the role, and thus looms larger in my mental landscape than perhaps it should.

So because my reviews over the years have been particularly shy of Sixth Doctor adventures (at least the televised ones), I decided I’d finally tackle ToaTL for the first part of 2017 (with a Dalek breakaway—see what I did there?—for Power in February) before Series Ten begins.

As we begin this season, then, we see the TARDIS being pulled into a large structure in space, and the Doctor steps out—alone—into a darkened hallway. The room he enters is also darkened until, with some vaguely ominous words, someone eventually identified as “the Valeyard”—the person who is to become his major adversary over the coming episodes—reveals that they are in a Time Lord courtroom.

The Doctor is the subject of a hearing to determine whether or not he is truly guilty of “conduct unbecoming of a Time Lord.” As part of his protest, the Doctor claims he can’t be put on trial because he’s Lord President of Gallifrey (Oh, Doctor… You sound unpleasantly like the new POTUS…), but is told that as a result of his neglect for his duties, he’s been deposed.

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Attack of the Mediocre

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Review of Attack of the Cybermen (#138)
DVD Release Date: 07 Jul 09 (Out of Print)
Original Air Date: 05 – 12 Jan 1985
Doctor/Companion: Six, Peri Brown
Stars: Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant
Preceding Story: The Twin Dilemma (Six, Peri)
Succeeding Story: Vengeance on Varos (Six, Peri)

After I posted my last review, which was for the Peter Davison audio adventure Spare Parts, one of my regular readers pointed out that I haven’t reviewed all of the televised adventures, and suggested I consider doing more. Given that my focus has generally been on the more-readily-agreed-to-be-canonical TV run, I thought that was a great idea—especially since it also makes it easier to come up with something to post about.

So I went and made a list of the DVD reviews I’ve already done, and the stories covered on in Nu-Views and Retro-Views, and proceeded to make a convoluted spreadsheet. I decided I should begin with ones I’ve never touched on at all, and try to even out the proportionality of reviews to available serials across all the pre-Hiatus/Classic Doctors.

Colin Baker turned out to be most slighted in this sense, in that only two of his eleven serials (counting the Trial of a Time Lord as four serials) have been reviewed, and one of those was a Nu-View. That means 82% of C. Baker’s run is untouched (T. Baker is at 62%, Davison 60%, McCoy 50%, Troughton 50% (of existing serials), Hartnell 47% (existing), and Pertwee 33%). I seemed obvious, then to start with Ol’ Sixie. But which serial?

It didn’t take long for me to pick one, and several to come after. Having just witnessed the ultimate beginning of the Cybermen last month, and realizing that three more Doctors also had unreviewed Cybermen stories, I settled on a theme. First up, then, is Six’s encounter in Attack of the Cybermen.

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Miracle in the Desert

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Review of The Eye of the Scorpion (#24)
Big Finish Release Date: Sep 2001
Doctor/Companion: Five and Peri
Stars: Peter Davison and Nicola Bryant
Preceding Story: Project: Twilight (Six, Evelyn)
Succeeding Story: Colditz (Seven, Ace)

Big Finish has achieved something I didn’t think was possible: they made an entire story in which I didn’t cringe at/actively dislike Peri. In fact, I was into Part Three before I realized that’s what was happening. I guess y’all can officially add me to the list of folks who (at this moment) think she was better paired with the Fifth Doctor than the Sixth.

Aside from that amazing feat, The Eye of the Scorpion is in itself an enjoyable adventure. While in flight, the TARDIS inexplicably changes course. Upon review, it appears the Doctor is responsible, but he has no idea when or how he might have done so.

Soon they land in Egypt, circa 1400 BCE. In typical Doctor form, they accidentally ingratiate themselves with the yet-to-be-crowned Pharaoh, a young woman named Erimem (Caroline Morris). But the Doctor knows the names of all the Pharaohs—especially the female ones, who were few and far between—and hers is not a one he recognizes.

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Retro-View #15: A Gentle Passing

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The Caves of Androzani (Story #136, 1984)
Viewed 29 Jan 2014

Doctor/Companion: Five, Perpugilliam “Peri” Brown
Stars: Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant
Preceding Story: Planet of Fire (Five, Peri, Turlough)
Succeeding Story: The Twin Dilemma (Six, Peri)

Given that Caves is generally viewed as one of the (if not “the”) best stories in Doctor Who‘s entire fifty year history, I had really been looking forward to sharing it with G. That pesky “Real Life” (RL) thing keeps getting in the way of our viewing, though. Not only has it been three months since we last got together, but this may well be our last session for a good long time, due to other RL obligations. Good thing we had something meaty to tide us over.

As usual, I spent a few minutes updating G on the various changes in the TARDIS crew since she last tuned in. Tegan and Nyssa have moved on, as has a completely different Companion whose entire tenure was between these episodes (that’d be Turlough; I didn’t even bother with Kamelion). And when it came along, I mentioned how Davison himself had wanted an explanation for the dratted celery he’d been wearing these past few years, and that’s why we got the whole bit about if it turns purple.

Mostly, though, the first episode of the serial was spent getting back into the groove and noticing all the stereotypical details. There was an “Eew!” at the cave bat/magma creature/whatever-we’re-calling-it and a laugh out loud at the ensuing panicky gunfire from the humans. There was an “Ooh, that was weird” at our first sight of Sharaz Jek and a “Boy, those are some hairy fingers. … Got the wolfman going here” at a subsequent one. And there was the observation of the obligatory set up: “Every show starts out with a misunderstanding of who he is…” By the time we’d made it to the first cliffhanger, we were back in the swing of things.

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